Sunderland boss Gus Poyet has told his players to enjoy their cup adventure as a gruelling schedule shows no signs of abating.

The Black Cats booked their place in the FA Cup
fourth round with a 3-1 home victory over League One Carlisle on
Sunday afternoon, but immediately turned their thoughts to Tuesday
night's Capital One Cup semi-final first leg clash with Manchester
United.

However, Poyet insists his players will relish
another tough game more than the training they would otherwise be
doing.

He said: "When I was a player, I wanted to play. I
hated to train and the fitness coach making me run and run. I
wanted to play games.

"If it was three days [between games], it would be
perfection; if it's two days it's a little bit risky.

"Today we gave a rest to a few players who will be
fresh on Tuesday and will have no excuses to perform against
Manchester United."

Sunderland eventually eased past Graham Kavanagh's
men after weathering a first-half fightback at the Stadium of
Light.

They looked to be on their way to victory when
England international Adam Johnson curled a fine 33rd-minute
free-kick past keeper Greg Fleming.

However, the visitors were back in it within nine
minutes when keeper Vito Mannone failed to cut out David Amoo's
cross and Matty Robson thumped the loose ball home off the
underside of the bar.

But the respite was short-lived and when skipper
Sean O'Hanlon unwittingly turned Johnson's driven 50th-minute cross
into his own goal, the writing was on the ball with substitute
El-Hadji Ba making sure that the death.

Poyet was especially pleased with the performance
of Ki Sung-yueng, who was forced to abandon his usual midfield role
to line up at centre-half with Valentin Roberge and Modibo Diakite
having joined John O'Shea on the sidelines.

But he was equally delighted with the contributions
from youngsters Ba and Duncan Watmore, who provided exciting
second-half cameos.

Poyet said: "I like them. I wouldn't like to kill
them, I would like them to slowly become part of this football
club.

"There are always opportunities for one reason or
another, because of the opposition or when we play or because of
the momentum or because you play in two days' time or because we
have got injuries or suspensions.

"They need to be ready and then do what they did
today, Duncan and Ba, to jump in and then show the manager and show
everybody that they are very, very interesting players with a great
future."

Despite the result, Kavanagh was a proud man as he
headed away from his former club.

He said: "I am very proud, very, very proud. I am
disappointed, obviously, with the result, but the way we played,
the intelligence we showed - I thought tactically, we were
excellent.

"We looked to counter-attack in the game and in the
first half, I thought we created the better chances, but we just
couldn't get over the line with the victory.